It happened. A new star has emerged on Wall Street, it's not another vegan hot dog company, but the cryptocurrency exchange Bullish, which decided to prove that blockchain can not only drop by 80% but also generate something like real enthusiasm among investors.
An IPO that shouldn't have happened, but it did
Offering price? $37 per share. Total? Well, you know these IPOs, they're like discounts at the supermarket: they write one thing, but at the checkout, it turns out to be something completely different. They opened at $90, jumped to $118, and then, of course, reality knocked on the door and everything 'modestly' settled somewhere around $68.
But even so. That's an 83% increase in one day. Honestly, when was the last time your salary increased by at least 8% in a year? Exactly.
BlackRock and ARK Invest, the so-called 'old money'
The funniest part? This IPO wasn't signed by some crazy crypto-anarchists in hoodies. No. It was BlackRock and ARK Invest, who usually sell you boring ETFs, and suddenly decided: 'Why don't we buy a crypto exchange? After all, the Fed is printing dollars faster than we can spend them.'
ARK Invest really went all in: $172 million. And now their ETFs look like they've been trading on Bybit at three in the morning after a bottle of beer.
Numbers that make your head spin (and not just for investors)
Bullish has on its balance: 24,000 BTC, 12,600 ETH, and a bunch of stablecoins.
In the first quarter, they traded nearly $80 billion.
For comparison: Coinbase did a little less, but, as always, earned more. Because Coinbase is the Apple of exchanges: everything is expensive, beautiful, and with a fee for breathing.
Bullish is like Costco: you go in for one bitcoin, and you come out with a cart full of ethers and the question: 'Why do I have all this?'
But there is one nuance
Now the company has a market capitalization of nearly $15 billion. Great, isn't it? But here's the question: what will happen when those institutional investors, BlackRock and ARK, decide to take their profits? We know their style: 'Thanks for the growth, now excuse us, we're out.'
And who will hold the bag? Right, ordinary retail investors, who have already started dreaming of a Lambo and a villa in Dubai.
The outcome
So BullishIPO is a real celebration for the crypto industry. Crypto is back on the front pages, and traditional funds are queuing up to invest. But if you think this is a story about long-term stability, no. This is a story about how Wall Street still loves a good show.
And yes, this time the show is called 'Bullish'
